Those just getting started on putting together their family tree should look to their relatives as a first source of information. If my family is anything to go by, one or two persons per generation get interested in family history. These people have perhaps compiled some family tree information, saved some old photos and letters, and have other items of family interest. Work on the family tree in each generation gets handed down to the next generation. To add all this information to your own family tree files you will need to find and contact various "long lost cousins". These long lost cousins can also help to leaf out your family tree with information on living relatives. The Internet can help you find these long lost cousins. My technique is to track down names and addresses using the Internet and then make contact using old-fashioned mail. Using regular mail for the actual contact is cheap and it's not too obtrusive. I compose a letter outlining the family history of the branch of the family I'm tracking down and then ask, "are we related?" So far I'm batting about a 50% success rate. I've found that most people are more than happy to share information with another branch of their family. The Internet tool that is used to get addresses is on-line telephone directories, most of which will provide an address in addition to the name and telephone number. When trying to track down long lost relatives it helps if you are searching an uncommon last name, but even if you have a common name, if you also have a city or town that you know a relative is living or once lived in, this information can be used to narrow down the search. In Canada, the main on-line telephone directory is Canada411 located at www.canada411.com. This directory covers all provinces except for Alberta and Saskatchewan. To get Saskatchewan listings head over to www.mysask.com (look for the Residential Listings button) and for Alberta, head over to www.alberta.com (do a "people" search). Since not all the listings show a postal code you may also have to head over to "www.canadapost.ca" in order to pick these up. In the U.S., the largest on-line telephone directory is AT&T's www.anywho.com. There are also directories for several other countries in the world. For a complete listing, pop over to www.teldir.com which is a website that provides links to telephone directories all over the world. This column and other resource material, including a link to my own genealogy pages, can be found on the Internet at "www.rideau-info.com/genealogy/". I can be contacted by email at kwatson@kos.net. |